This study aims to document the work of a widely used and trusted network of health practitioners providing alternative health care to thousands of immigrants from Oaxaca, Mexico living in the Los Angeles area. The goal of the project will be to systematically identify and to document the application of traditional healing techniques employed by people of Mexican origin which are consistent with their own cultural heritage yet complement Western medicine for the treatment of diabetes, hypertension and cancer. The Zapotec and other indigenous groups from Mexico seek care for culturally defined illnesses they would rarely see a Western doctor for, such as susto (soul loss), evil eye and bad air. Qualitative methods will be used to study a sample of traditional healers and their patients living in Los Angeles. The healers wil include bonesetters, masseuses, spiritists and curers of soul loss and other supernatural illnesses. Ethnographic, in-depth interviews will be conducted with six healers. Interview topics will focus on how they view their work, their philosophy of healing, techniques employed to treat patients suffering from folk illnesses in conjunction with diabetes, hypertension or cancer. In addition, interviews will be conducted with eighteen patients who will also be observed during a treatment session with their healer. The explanatory models (EMs) as described by Kleinman (regarding etiology, symptom onset, pathophysiology, course, and treatment) that both healers and their patients have will be studied and compared. Content analysis of interview and observation data will be conducted using an inductive approach, by identifying themes and patterns that emerge. Taxonomies and cognitive maps will also be developed. Thus, the study will research the types of herbal and plant remedies, ritual, spiritual and body work that traditional healers employ to treat patients who also have been diagnosed by Western doctors with serious health problems. It will also compare for the first time, the Explanatory Models of indigenous Mexican immigrant patients with their traditional healers.